Dr. Erkeda DeRouen welcomes Dr. Basma Faris, a former registered dietician and now OB-GYN and Culinary Medicine Specialist. She shares her storied journey from starting out as a dietician and finally into medicine school, but not without a few bumps along the way. She also shares valuable tips on how to ace your med school interviews through the media training she received.
- [00:22] Introducing Dr. Basma Faris
- [06:53] How Dr. Faris Controlled Her Narrative
- [13:23] How to Showcase Yourself During Med School Interviews
- [18:39] The Importance of Practicing
- [22:16] Tips for Rotation
- [26:19] Culinary Medicine
- [33:10] Dr. Faris’ Best Piece of Advice
- [34:47] Where to Find Dr. Faris
How to Pitch Yourself and Ace Your Med School Interviews
Dr. Faris tips on how to pitch yourself in an interview is to come up with a one liner composed of two to three different things that you can package together to make sure that you can get your point across. What Dr. Faris did was take her past, her present, and where she wants to take her career moving forward, giving the interviewers a full circle or perspective of your experience. To give an example, her one liner is “I’m Dr. Basma Faris and I’m a former registered dietician, now OB-GYN and culinary medicine specialist”. It answers the question of where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going. If there’s something that you need to get across that is going to be stand-out factor, it should be in there as well.
If you have something that you need to explain such as an incident in college or having a low mark on a specific class, that might not be something you want to lead with, but a canned response is important. Own it, make it concise, be prepared, and don’t be caught off guard. She also advices watching how politicians answer question in the news and even practicing with friends or pretend you’re at a Zoom call to verbalize your answers well.
You can reach Dr. Faris through her Instagram and her website.
Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Send a message to Dr. Erkeda DeRouen’s Instagram or MedSchoolCoach’s Instagram.
